IRIS Blog

Israel is now between two wars.

During the Lebanon War, massive negligence was revealed, such as empty military warehouses and soldiers going into battle without basic necessities like water.

Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran are preparing frenetically for the next war, which intelligence sources have predicted may occur as early as this summer.

Olmert's plan? Slash the defense budget. I kid you not:

IDF: Slashing Defense Budget will Damage Army Maneuvers

A senior IDF official said Sunday that plans to cut half a billion shekels from the defense budget would damage army maneuvers, reserve service days and the equipping of army forces, Israel Radio reported.

That amount translates to $119.5 million, which is nearly exactly what Israel just donated to the Fatah terror organization as the first installment in a $400 million total transfer.

The official added that, de facto, the defense budget also suffered similar cuts in 2007, despite the fact that the army was sorely in need of many billions of shekels.

Sources in the finance ministry claimed that the defense budget actually grew in 2007, but the army responded that the said funds were either funneled to the home front or used to renew army inventory that had dwindled during the Second Lebanon War.

It is difficult to imagine a crazier story than this, which indicates how unserious the West is about confronting the the Global Jihad threat:

Up to eight police officers and civilian staff are suspected of links to extremist groups including Al Qaeda.

Some are even believed to have attended terror training camps in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

Their names feature on a secret list of alleged radicals said to be working in the Metropolitan and other forces.

The dossier was drawn up with the help of MI5 amid fears that individuals linked to Islamic extremism are taking advantage of police attempts to increase the proportion of ethnic staff.

Astonishingly, many of the alleged jihadists have not been sacked because - it is claimed - police do not have the "legal power" to dismiss them.

We can also reveal that one suspected jihadist officer working in the South East has been allowed to keep his job despite being caught circulating Internet images of beheadings and roadside bombings in Iraq.

He is said to have argued that he was trying to "enhance" debate about the war.

Classified intelligence reports raising concerns about police staff's background cannot be used to justify their dismissal, sources said.

Instead, the staff who are under suspicion are unofficially barred from working in sensitive posts and are closely monitored. Political correctness is blamed for the decision not to sack them.

It is widely feared that "long-term" Al Qaeda sleepers are trying to infiltrate other public sector organisations in the UK.

In November last year, it was revealed that a leading member of an extremist Islamic group was working as a senior official at the Home Office.

MI5 has warned in the past that suspects with "strong links" to Osama Bin Laden's killers have tried to join the British security services and, in January, exiled radical Omar Bakri claimed that Islamic extremists were infiltrating the police and other public sector organisations.

Suspicions are growing that the gang behind the failed London bomb attacks could have received inside information about rescue procedures in the aftermath of an atrocity in the capital.

The Daily Mail can reveal that the second device parked near Haymarket was left at a designated "evacuation assembly point" where civilians and the emergency services would have gathered had the first bomb gone off.

Investigators are trying to establish whether the bombers knew the significance of the location.

Sources said it is unlikely that the Met is the only force which may have been infiltrated by Al Qaeda sympathisers.

Omar Altimimi, a failed asylum seeker jailed for nine years yesterday for hoarding manuals on how to carry out car bombings, had applied to work as a cleaner for the Greater Manchester force.

In a separate development, it is understood that a policeman was removed from his post after concerns about his conduct in the aftermath of a major anti-terrorist operation in the past two years....

The disclosure will raise concerns about the system for vetting new recruits, each of whom is the subject of counter-terrorism checks to ensure they are suitable to join the police. Scotland Yard's vetting unit is regarded as one of the best in the country.

But sources said it is often impossible to carry out satisfactory checks on recruits who were raised overseas or who have spent considerable periods out of Britain before applying to join the Met.

In such cases, the Met has to rely on overseas agencies to carry out intelligence checks on their behalf. Privately, officials doubt whether certain countries in Africa, Middle East or the Indian sub-continent are able to carry out meaningful vetting.

What if the police recruit is from Gaza, Syria, Sudan or Iran? Many Jihad-sponsoring regions are not willing to screen out Islamists.

As a result of the Stephen Lawrence public inquiry report, which accused the Met of being "institutionally racist", Scotland Yard has in recent years employed thousands of officers and civilian staff from the ethnic minorities in an attempt to reach recruitment targets.

There are three things wrong with this story:

We heard that there was a "war" between Fatah and Hamas, leaving Hamas in control of Gaza. Why, then, would Hamas allow a Fatah rocket-launcher to operate in its territory?

This Fatah terrorist is employed by Abbas, which is in the process of receiving $400 million from Israel. Why, then, would he bite the hand that feeds him? Why would Israel continue funding Fatah?

Why would a "moderate" Fatah man operate together with an "extremist" Islamic Jihad? Aren't extremists anathema to moderates?

Senior Hamas terror chief Mohammed Siam was killed by the IDF during an operation in central Gaza early Thursday morning. A Fatah man was wounded while trying to fire a rocket at the western Negev Wednesday....

The Israel Air Force carried out a targeted air strike Wednesday, wounding two terrorists spotted in the process of launching a Kassam rocket attack against Israel. According to PA sources, one of the wounded terrorists was a member of Islamic Jihad and the other belonged to Fatah?s Al-Aksa Brigades terrorist group.

This is a bellweather development, because increasing numbers of Jews leave the nation with the highest quality of life for one threatened with extermination. Why? The same reason Jews and Christians often lay down their lives to save others, and the same reason many Muslims lay down their lives to kill infidel children: because it's a mitzvah. Ideology, not economics, is the key determinant of behavior.

About 230 new olim from the United States and Canada are expected to arrive in Israel next Tuesday on a flight organized by the Nefesh B'Nefesh organization.

Upon their arrival at Ben Gurion Airport, the newcomers will be received by a welcoming ceremony with the participation of hundreds of citizens who have already made aliyah from North America in recent years.

Over the past five years, the number of olim from the United States and Canada has increased by about 80 percent. According to data by the Nefesh B?Nefesh organization, over 3,500 people will make aliyah from North America during the summer of 2007.

The Aliyah Department of the Jewish Agency for Israel is anticipating that immigration to Israel from North America will increase between 5 and 10 percent this year, marking the highest year for aliyah from North America in 25 years. In 2006, 3,200 residents of the US and Canada formally became Israeli citizens, the highest figure since 1983.

Cooperation between the Jewish Agency and Nefesh B'Nefesh, however, has been discontinued due to differences between the two organizations, which have worked together on bringing olim to Israel up until recently.

The split has been attributed, among other things, to disputes over financial issues and to Nefesh B'Nefesh's ability to be selective in receiving applicants for aliyah, as opposed to the Jewish Agency, which has to accept anybody who fulfils the criterion for aliyah as set out under the Law of Return.

This is not true. The root of the dispute is that the two groups care about different things. Nefesh B'Nefesh cares about aliyah, and all of the recent success in catalyzing American aliya is entirely to the credit of the recently-formed Nefesh B'Nefesh. The Jewish Agency is largely a sinecure for those with protexia, which means that aliyah is their biggest long-term threat. The Jewish Agency aliya budget should be given directly to Nefesh B'Nefesh.

The only way to release the stranglehold on this nation by the protexia-wielders is to immigrate and vote. One who believes that God has given Israel to the Jews as a blessing must treat it as such. A baby is a similar blessing: one who doesn't make the unpleasant effort of getting up to feed it in the middle of the night is going to lose the blessing because of negligence.

As I predicted, there will likely be many more incidents like this:

IDF troops shot dead a 15-year-old Palestinian youth during operations in Hebron on Tuesday. The troops said that the boy appeared to be holding an M-16 rifle. After the shooting, the troops found that that the youth had been holding a plastic replica of an M-16.

For must-read context, see this previous post.

The main result of Aharon Barak's left-wing judicial revolution in which "everything is justiciable" has been the elimination of justice for many due to the massive court backlog. Additionally Israeli officials generally turn a blind eye to illegal Arab building:

Israeli authorities, ignoring a court decision, have refused to evict Arab squatters from a Jewish-owned property in the nation's capital.

The police have refused to implement a court order to evict an Arab clan who had been living in a Jewish-owned home for more than 15 years. Instead, authorities said the elderly American Jewish owner must evict the family by himself or pay for police services.

"I was told not to go on my property by the police," Yitzhak Hershkowitz, the Jewish owner, said. "I paid them [bailiff services] but not enough. What's going on here? They're stealing my property and after I get a court decision I have to give them a reward for the legal act of trespass. In Los Angeles, if you are the owners of the house, they [the squatters] are evicted automatically by the police."

Authorities issued an eviction notice to the Arab family that contained a July 2 deadline. The house is located in Beit Safafa, a mostly Arab-populated neighborhood in southern Jerusalem. "The eviction must be implemented until July 2, 2007," the court order read. "The eviction will not be implemented by the police or bailiff services."

Supporters said Hershkowitz is the victim of a double standard practiced by Israeli authorities. They pointed to a massive police and military operation to evict Jews who claimed ownership to a home in the West Bank city of Hebron in 2006. At the time, the Supreme Court accepted the police claim that the deeds acquired by the Jews were fraudulent.

Police refused to discuss the Hershkowitz case or whether they demanded payment to carry out the eviction order. Instead, police said this was an issue for the Jerusalem municipality.

"I'm not familiar with the case," Jerusalem police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

The Jerusalem Municipality said it was not involved in evictions. A spokeswoman said this was a police matter.

"In general, this is the job of the police or the army," Jerusalem Municipality spokesperson Dassi Tenenbaum said. "They are not meant to get payment for this. As far as eviction orders are concerned, the municipality is not meant to carry out evictions."

In 1992, Hershkowitz, an immigrant from the United States, purchased the Beit Safafa property from a Jewish resident of Los Angeles. The resident was said to have acquired the property from an Armenian Christian in Beit Safafa in 1972.

Hershkowitz never gained entry to the property. Squatters from the Bedouin tribe of Tamra, based in the southern West Bank, claimed ownership to the property.

In 1993, Hershkowitz began legal proceedings. Eleven years later, Jerusalem Magistrates Court Judge Yitzhak Milanov ruled that the property belonged to Hershkowitz. The judge ordered the eviction of the Bedouins, members of the Salah clan, as well as back rent.

"The respondents have proved that they don't have any claim to the property and therefore an eviction order will be issued from the property and they will be obligated to pay appropriate rent and or other utilities," Milanov said in his decision.

Still, the police and the bailiff service have refused to evict the squatters, who now number 10 adults and 40 children. Hershkowitz said police told him they would station two officers, but would not interfere if the Bedouins resisted.

On July 2, Hershkowitz arrived with several supporters to evict the squatters. Police stopped the Jewish group and served Hershkowitz with a court order that delayed the eviction until July 5.

Hours later, the attorney for the Salah family obtained a court hearing scheduled for July 9. Hershkowitz said the attorney demanded $15,000 for his Bedouin clients to leave the house. The attorney, Mohammed Dahla, denied such an offer.

"Their attorney told me, 'I could make this case go on for years and years,'" Hershkowitz said.

So much for that alleged war that succeeded in shaking down $400 million from Israel alone. Of course there are billions more from the US and EU to "strengthen Fatah against Hamas."

No mainstream news source reported what IRIS did: the war was a fraud. Now there is news that the few days Abbas was "taking action against Hamas" in the West Bank has ended. Those were the same days when Western powers were implementing a publicity campaign to support their Fatah funding telethon:


Fatah and Hamas Searching for Ways to Collaborate Again

Despite the complete Hamas takeover of Gaza and the Fatah suppression of Hamas in Judea and Samaria, including heavy violence and mutual accusations of illegitimacy, the two Palestinian Authority terrorist organizations may be moving towards a renewed cooperation. This, according to IDF analysts, can be seen in the cessation of Fatah activity against Hamas in Judea and Samaria.
Abbas seems to have ceased anti-Hamas efforts in areas still under his control.

The intelligence assessment was presented on Tuesday to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee by Brigadier General Ronen Cohen of IDF Intelligence (known by its Hebrew acronym, AMAN). IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi was also on hand to discuss the intelligence report, after having received a subcommittee study regarding the training of the military's officer corps.

"Despite the brutal process Gaza has gone through," Brig. Gen. Cohen told the Knesset committee, "Hamas aspires to return to a dialogue with regional Arab states, such as Egypt and Syria, as well as with [PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas]."

For his part, Abbas seems to have ceased anti-Hamas efforts in areas still under his control, Cohen reported: "The Palestinian Authority acted during the first few days [after the Hamas coup in Gaza] against the Hamas in Judea and Samaria. That activity has declined in recent days, until we see no further activity in that direction."

Chief of Staff Ashkenazi added his own comments during the intelligence briefing, saying, "Over time, a situation of dialogue between Abu Mazen [Abbas] and [Hamas's Damascus-based chief Khaled] Mashaal will develop, with the two organizations finding a way to maintain contact, as they have a common national interest"....

Despite the apparent lessening of tensions between Fatah and Hamas, Israeli and PA security officials met on Monday, after a two year hiatus, to "discuss how to move forward with security cooperation," according to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisen.

Here is an important piece about the Muslim doctors' UK airport bombings, the latest manifestation of Londonistan:

It?s best not to dwell on the enormity of what has led us here. In yesterday?s Mail, Melanie Phillips summarised superbly not just the deranged evil of those who seek to destroy us, but also the frightening criminal negligence, stubborn stupidity and callous indifference of those charged with protecting us.

Don?t blame the police or the intelligence service, this is a mess made by politicians. I felt like retching when Gordon Brown sauntered on camera to announce that the safety of the British people was paramount. Here is a man who for the past ten years has been one of the two most prominent members of a government which has turned Britain into a playground for jihadists.

Labour tore up border controls, allowing a mass influx of Islamist psychopaths from all over the globe. Radical preachers and terrorist recruiting sergeants were encouraged to settle here. They were fed and watered, handed benefits, council houses and free cars.

Two years after 9/11, Captain Hook was still given a police guard to peddle his message of hatred and murder on the streets of Finsbury Park. Omar Bakri was safely tucked up in free accommodation in Edmonton and driving a brand new people carrier paid for by the mug British taxpayer.

These were but two among tens of thousands of Muslims living among us who make no secret that they hate Western society and intend to establish an Islamic state in Britain. Yet Gordon Brown?s government wasn?t interested.

Those of us who had the audacity to question the folly of allowing Islamic radicalism to foment in this country in the name of ?diversity? and ?multiculturalism? were smeared as ?racists?.

Here is the Melanie Phillips piece he refers to. Melanie Phillips has been out front in documenting the Londonistan phenomenon:

Far from damping this fire down, the Government itself is fanning the flames still further. Because it refuses to acknowledge that this is an Islamic religious war against the West, the political and security establishment is actually trying to use Islamist religious extremism as an antidote to Islamist terrorism without acknowledging the unbroken line between the two.

So it is actually promoting, as role models for impressionable young Muslims seeking a purpose to their lives, Islamists who claim not to support violence - even though they spout hatred of the West, Americans and Jews.

Ludicrously, it has even recruited Islamist radicals into government - to act as advisors against Islamic radicalism.

This lethal misjudgment has had disastrous results. Extremism has multiplied. The police themselves have been compromised. As the former radical Ed Husain has written, Islamists who work closely with the police to ?represent Muslims? have been tipping off jihadists about police activities.

And the Government?s refusal to outlaw Hizb ut Tahrir, on the spurious grounds that although it promotes the Islamic takeover of Britain it is not committed to violence, has meant that this group continues to recruit thousands of students on campus to the cause of jihad against the West.

This is madness. The result is that, while most British Muslims say they would have no truck with terrorism or violence, an insupportable number of them do endorse appalling ideas.

Via: Little Green Footballs

In the local media spectacle going on now over the homeless protestors, no reporter would consider asking why in the world someone without the basic necessity of a home would devote time to the luxury of public demonstration. Simple: anyone who earns less than the average Israeli wage can receive approximately the average wage in unemployment benefits without the hassle of actually working.

Ninety-two homeless people marched to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's residence in Jerusalem on Monday evening to demand that every Israeli homeless person be given a decent home, as the group continued to maintain a tent camp in a Jerusalem park as part of their struggle.

The group, which began the march from an encampment in the city's Kikar Moshe Bar-Am where they have been living in 20 tents for the past three weeks, launched the march to protest the fact that some 53,000 Israelis remain homeless, according to Ayala Sabag, the group's leader.

"These are people without a mouth to speak, like the son in the Pessah Seder who does not know how to ask," she said. She insisted that the encampment would remain in place "until the State of Israel gives every Israeli a home."

Right. Israel's flirtation with the socialist welfare has bankrupted the world's most successful implementers of the free market. Israel doesn't have the money to defend itself, let alone provide a home to those who it forcibly expelled from Gaza to bring "peace."

Unfortunately, Israel is half-socialist (and half-free). Every sector with minimal government involvement thrives, while the protexia-dominated sectors largely create misery. The best example has been the Maccabiah Games' bridge disaster, in which cronyism enabled a third-world-style bridge to be created in the midst of the leading engineering community. When the structure collapsed from the weight of people alone, falling athletes died from simple exposure to the polluted Yarkon river below. Because it runs through one of the world's highest population densities, it is therefore potentially Israel's greatest natural asset. How did it turn into a deadly sewage carrier despite Israel's "progressive" environmental legislation? The answer is that there is no such thing as an altruistic government system such as socialism. There is only freedom or cronyism. Those with protexia, mostly government enterprises, received environmental waivers in order to dump dangerous waste directly into the Yarkon river.

Olmert's leadership has given a huge boost to the thriving protexia industry.

This should prove once and for all that the liberal thinking that 'poverty causes terror' is false (as well as the other shibboleths like lack of opportunity, intellectual manipulation or legitimate grievances). Rather, as most conservatives believe, it's the ideology.

Every terror solution based on this flawed politically correct idea, such as John Edwards' 10,000 new peace corps workers and George Bush's endorsement of a Palestinian state, is therefore inconsequential or worse because it misses the diagnosis:

The suspected al-Qa'eda terrorists behind the attempted car bomb attacks on Britain were almost all foreign doctors working in the NHS, it can be disclosed today.

It comes as an eighth person - also a foreign doctor who has worked in the UK - was arrested in Australia in connection with the attacks.

A second doctor who has also worked in the UK is being questioned by Australian police but has not been arrested....

In a development that will raise questions over the vetting procedures for medics from abroad, it has emerged that five of the seven suspects held by British police are young Middle Eastern men employed at British hospitals.

There are no vetting procedures for any immigrants to any Western country on the basis of whether they are jihadists. And until this most minimal element of the understanding that jihad ideology causes jihad attacks is implemented, we will continue to be slaughtered in ever increasing numbers.

One is Mohammed Asha, a "brilliant" neurosurgeon from Jordan. Another being questioned over both the London and Glasgow attacks is Bilal Abdulla, an Iraqi junior doctor who was a passenger in the car that rammed Glasgow airport.

The driver of the Jeep Cherokee -who suffered 90 per cent burns after setting himself on fire in the attack - is said to be a locum doctor working at the hospital where he is now being treated. Two of his colleagues at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley, Renfrewshire, were also arrested yesterday and another junior doctor is understood to have been the man police arrested in Liverpool.

Disclosures of the suspected terrorists' backgrounds - which came as the hunt for any others who may have been connected to the terrorist incidents continued - surprised detectives and the intelligence services.

Five men have been arrested, while a sixth, the Jeep driver, is under police guard in hospital. He was operated on yesterday but doctors said his chances of survival were slim.

He has not been officially arrested because detectives are waiting for him to recover and do not want to trigger the 28-day maximum time limit for detaining him as a terrorism suspect.

The seventh person arrested is Dr Asha's wife.

Every Republican contender (Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney) seems to thoroughly understand that jihad ideology causes jihad. Both serious Democrat candidates (Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton) are diehard believers that poverty causes crime. Unfortunately it is our lives in the hands of their diehard faith.

Fatah is attacking Israel with Kassam missiles from Gaza. Fatah is committing violence on reporters who don't report Fatah attacks on the IDF. Fatah members on the Fatah payroll have killed innumerable Israelis. And Israel is cutting $118 million checks to Fatah.

But don't worry--Israeli leaders are cunning. They know that a significant portion of that money won't go to terror because of Fatah corruption.

Could it be that there are kickbacks to Israeli leaders? No, that would be unimaginable. Yes, many of the current Israeli leadership are corrupt and Fatah corruption is routine. But it would be inconceivable that they would team up in their corruption.

Report: Israel Transfers $118 Million to PA

Israel transferred US $118 million of frozen tax funds it has been holding since Hamas's victory in the Palestinian elections last year, Palestinian sources were quoted Sunday as saying by Israel Radio.

Israel was planning to transfer all frozen taxes in several installments.

Israel was trying to bolster Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in his standoff against the rival Hamas group, which violently seized control of the Gaza Strip last month.

There wasn't any standoff. The Fatah-Hamas war was a fraud. Fatah gunmen were ordered not to fight.

Apparently Olmert's regular spin doctors are on summer vacation. The following rationalization is of singificantly lower quality than usual so it must have been written by an intern:

Israeli sources said that in the past, more Palestinians officials had access to the account, and that limited access to the account would be effective in ensuring that the money did not finance terrorism.

There is no more honest reporting from Gaza, and almost none left in the West Bank, thanks to your tax dollars:

Top Palestinian Journalist Seeks Asylum in Norway

A prominent Palestinian journalist from the Gaza Strip has sought political asylum in Norway, Palestinian journalists said Saturday.

Seif al-Din Shahin, the correspondent for the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel network, left the Gaza Strip together with his family, they said, noting that he had received many death threats over the past few months.

Shahin's request has yet to be approved by the Norwegian government. Several other Palestinian journalists are also reported to have fled the Gaza Strip out of fear for their lives.

Earlier this year, masked gunmen set fire to the offices of Al-Arabiya in Gaza City, causing heavy damage to furniture and equipment. Although no group claimed responsibility, Palestinian journalists blamed members of Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades.

The group was also responsible for beating Shahin in two separate incidents in 2001 and 2004. The second assault followed Shahin's live broadcast of a rally held on Fatah's anniversary. The report angered Fatah leaders who had instructed Shahin and other journalists to report that tens of thousands had participated.

In 2003 he was arrested by the Palestinian Authority security forces because of his reporting. Al-Arabiya's offices in Ramallah have also been attacked by Fatah gunmen on a number of occasions.

Shahin's brother, Muhammad, confirmed that his brother had left the Gaza Strip, but said he was unaware of the reports that he had asked for political asylum. "My brother left for personal reasons," he said.

Shahin's decision to seek political asylum in Norway comes amid a campaign that is being waged by Fatah against Al-Arabiya's rival, Al-Jazeera....

Two weeks ago, Fatah militiamen set fire to the home of Hassan al-Titi, the Al-Jazeera correspondent in Nablus. One of the station's correspondents in the Gaza Strip, Hiba Akileh, came under fire from Fatah for allegedly ignoring the fact that Fatah gunmen had participated in the fighting against the IDF last week.

Savor that last sentence. Israel has no money to defend Israeli homes against the daily barrage of missiles from groups including Fatah (see here, for example, for an Israeli strike two days ago on a Fatah Kassam specialist, working on the Fatah payroll funded by Israel and the US). Yet Israel is funding Fatah with $118 million today, with which it violently attacks journalists for failing to publicize Fatah attacks on Israel.

Fatah gunmen have also torched two vehicles belonging to Al-Jazeera in Ramallah. The attack came after Al-Jazeera ignored demands to cover a Fatah rally in the city.

Ehud Olmert vowed not to set free any prisoners with "blood on their hands" in his impending release of 250 Palestinian terrorists to "strengthen the moderate Abbas." (Of course, Israeli jails have been emptied so often that officials are having difficulty finding any long-term terrorist prisoners who weren't successful murderers.) So how does he manage to release the terrorist murderers of two IDF soldiers? Simple: don't include them in the count.

While the cabinet did not discuss the 250 prisoners, it did vote 16-4 to release four Jordanian prisoners who killed two IDF soldiers in 1990....

Cabinet sources said that one of the considerations behind transferring the men was to prevent them from being included in any future prisoner release or swap - such as the gesture to be made to Abbas or a possible swap for kidnapped Cpl. Gilad Schalit. Olmert, according to the sources, did not want Hamas to be able to "take credit" for the transfer, as Hizbullah did when prime minister Ariel Sharon released a number of Jordanian prisoners in the deal for Elhanan Tannenbaum, held in Lebanon, in 2004.

So instead of allowing Hamas to take credit for these four murderers, Israel will have to release more than four attempted murderers. And this way, Hamas will get to claim both the higher number of released terrorists plus these four. They would have every justification for receiving credit for prophylactically-released terrorists as well.

Admittedly, prophylactically-released terrorists command a lower mindshare valuation on the Arab street, so the Israeli calculus is not wholly without merit.

How to mute any local negative publicity? Simple. Claim that they are being released to Jordan, who "will continue to punish them." Jordan promised to wait 18 months before releasing them. Now, if Jordan has used its diplomatic capital to push for releasing this prisoners, and is intending to let them go as soon as Israel will agree, what kind of "jail" are they likely to face in Jordan now?

Astoundingly, many on the left-wing proponents of the expulsion of Jews from Gaza have publicly acknowledged their mistake in strident terms:

Journalist Ilana Dayan: How is it that we all blindly followed Oslo?...Why didn't we ask whether disengagement was the right step?"

TV personality Avri Gilad: I supported the disengagement plan and I was wrong?the orange (pro-settlement camp) was right.

Journalist and political commentator Yaron London: Nothing has been built on the ruins except terrorist training camps?"

Playwright Yehoshua Sobol: I wouldn't like to see us folding from Judea and Samaria once again and to see Qassam rockets being fired on Kfar Saba, Ra'anana and Herzliya?"

Major-General Yiftah Ron Tal: (Commander of the land forces during the disengagement): I cannot understand why Israel relinquished parts of its land voluntarily and passionately, and how it turned settlers connected to the land into criminals?

Journalist and TV personality Yair Lapid: The calmest front at the moment is in Judea and Samaria. Heretic thoughts are suddenly occupying the minds of the staunchest leftists: Perhaps it's not the occupation?

Alon Gershon Hacohen (in charge of disengagement in the Gaza Strip): The disengagement was a crime, and I was a partner to a crime against the Jewish people?the Second Lebanon War is the punishment?"

Journalist Dan Margalit: I had hoped that it would be possible to achieve bi-national peace between the River Jordan and the Sea; however, there is nothing to discuss?a man should not be expelling another from his home; moreover, a Jew should not be expelling another Jew.

Journalist Yoel Marcus: It appears that the extremist settlers ?were the ones who were right. The Palestinians turned Gush Katif into a base for ongoing fire?"

The above quotes were compiled by the Yesha Council, but I find some of them so extraordinary that they are a little hard to believe.